Countdown, Chapter 1
by Carlos M. Sandoval
Summary: Not really fan-fiction, but rather an original story with .hackSIGN influences. Rated PG13 for: Violence, mild romance, assination references, and sci-fi action.


Countdown  
Episode One  
"The File"  
  
A man walked up and sat on a bench. It was a cold winter day, the kind you always got in England. He sat there, with his right leg crossed over his left knee. I woman came up and sat beside him. They were silent for a while, and then, he spoke up. "You know, I always wondered what happened that day." He said. She looked startled. She looked over to him, and answered. "You must be Carlos. Hello, I am-" He cut her off. "Amy, yes, I know. You are the one who said she knew about PN09. Well, what do you know?" "It's a long story." She replied. "I have time. Go ahead." She began. "Alright, here goes.  
  
As the internet grew in popularity, the servers became heavily burdened. In order to accommodate all the new users and companies, the Federal Powers of the World, the FPW, developed software entitled "Compuware". Utilizing this new software, hundreds of things now became dependent on the i-net. Education, football games, even working out became a VR, or virtual reality, based activity. It worked fine for a while. After the War of 2023, the United Nations were proved to be counter-effective to the New World Order treaty of 2012. So, the many federal governments made a massive convention every 4 years. It worked much better than NATO or The United Nations ever did, but there was one big problem.  
  
The federal governments of the world had always been working diligently to put censorship on certain items, which absolutely needed to be done. Such examples were the internet, and "spyware" or "ad-ware" development. The programs worked perfectly. Until, that is, the Countdown incident. Some wise Hackers felt that the servers were too limited, so a shareware system was created that effectively gave the "Board of Intelligence", a secret group of people within FPW and the federal structure filled with elite hackers, the ability to "drain" or "zone" objects into the world, and soon, stop the over-censorship the FPW had committed. The FPW had begun shaping things to suit them. Basically, they were spreading propaganda on a wide scale. The intentions of the Board of Intelligence were pure in the beginning, but, as we all know, the heart of man is easily corrupted.  
  
Soon, the Board started to make threats to FPW to stop their over- censorship or they would shut down the i-net. Nobody believed them, so they decided to "pull the plug" for 1 day to show them. What the board hadn't considered was that even THEIR systems were running on the i-net. They couldn't bring it back up, and the world's economy and governments were ruined.  
  
Soon, communication was re-established, and families brought back together. Because event he construction machines were based on the i-net, the cities were left to ruin, and settlements formed."  
  
"Yes, I know all that, but what about the file?" He interrupted. "I'm getting to it." She replied. She continued, "Some of the board, before the disconnection, which was later known as the Red Eye Moon incident, felt that by disconnecting the net, the consequences would be huge. They tried to persuade the rest of the board not to do it, but were outnumbered. The leader of the faction was Thomas Morgan, a former FPW solider turned bureaucrat. He saved net information and application files in a folder known as "Salvation". He then hid the disk in a secret location, which nobody has yet to find. Thankfully, when they disconnected the net, the pc's of the world also disconnected from the net itself, saving them, but deleting all the net data."  
  
"But what does the file have to do with it?" He inquired. "That is the great mystery." She replied. "However," she added, "I think the answer to the location of the disk is in that file. Crack the number code, find the location." "But whenever people try to decode it, their PC crashes and they can't continue." He replied. "It crashes after 24 hours, yes. But, if we can compile all the former findings of those previous attempts and crack it ourselves, we may be able to crack the code." She said. "This is why I need you. You have past connections with the board, correct?" He inquired. "Yes, and I think that the first clue we can find is in a safety deposit box at Winslow Bank. Here is the key." She handed him a key. "Now, be careful, because-" She was cut off by a gunshot, which ripped though her arm. She shot up and took cover behind a statue. She returned fire, and then Carlos ran behind to meet with her. "Go! Now!" She bellowed, and motioned toward a cliff. "What? I'll never survive the fall!" "Jump into the water. Trust me; you'll never survive this fight if you don't." She replied. He jumped. Everything seemed to move in slow motion as he fell. He was going to make it! He fell in the water, relieved to be alive. He saw Amy start to move, and she was shot into the water with him. While trying to hold her up, he was hit in the head by something. He turned around sluggishly, losing consciousness, and saw a motor boat, and felt something warm coming out of his head. Was that blood? He thought. So cold, so tired. Going to sleep now.  
  
Amy and he were dragged onto a lifeguard boat, where they sped away. "He'll survive, and so will she, but she won't remember a thing after those wounds, shots, and head trauma. Well, let's do the best we can to hel." They trailed off as he lost consciousness. He felt everything go black, and his muscles went limp. 


End file.
